US, Taliban in talks to swap detainees

WSJ report says Biden admin seeking return of three Americans seized in 2022

WASHINGTON:

The Biden administration is negotiating with Afghanistan to exchange Americans detained in the country for at least one high-profile prisoner held in Guantanamo Bay with alleged ties to former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Representatives of the White House and the US State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report. Representatives for the Afghan Taliban also did not immediately respond.

US President Joe Biden's administration is seeking the return of three Americans seized in 2022 - Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi - in exchange for Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, the WSJ reported.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that the Biden administration has been negotiating with the Taliban since at least July on a US proposal to exchange Corbett, Glezmann and Habibi for Rahim. The Taliban, who deny holding Habibi, countered with an offer to exchange Glezmann and Corbett for Rahim and two others, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Corbett and Habibi were detained in separate incidents in August 2022 a year after the Taliban seized Kabul amid the chaotic US troop withdrawal. Glezmann was detained later in 2022 while visiting as a tourist.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council said they could not confirm the WSJ story, but added that the administration was "working around the clock" to secure the release of the three Americans.

Rahim's lawyer, James Connell, told Reuters that neither the Biden administration nor the Taliban had informed him or Rahim of the negotiations. "It does seem important to include Rahim or his representative in the conversation," said Connell. "As it happens, he is willing to be traded or exchanged."

Rahim was "the last person brought into the CIA torture program," said Connell, referring to an agency program instituted after the Sept 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks that used harsh interrogation methods on suspected militants. The CIA denies the methods amounted to torture.

The US-Taliban talks have been in motion since July, according to the WSJ, which cited sources who attended a classified House Foreign Affairs Committee briefing last month with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan